Alphonse G. Holtmann

Wage Determination of Registered Nurses in Proprietary and Nonprofit Nursing Homes

This study explores why registered nurses employed in nonprofit nursing homes earn higher wages than those employed in proprietary facilities. Previous studies have explained this finding in a property rights context, where higher wages were posited to result from the weaker incentives for cost minimization accompanying nonprofit status. This paper tests an alternative explanation of sectoral wage differences which is predicated on the reason for the coexistence of for-profit and nonprofit firms in a given industry. Informational constraints concerning the quality of care are posited to cause the long-term health care market to fail to provide care at the upper levels of a quality of care continuum. Nonprofits are viewed as a response to this form of market failure, acting to fulfill customers demand for higher quality (and higher cost) long-term care, with attendant demand for higher quality nurses than in for-profit homes. Both the observed sectoral pattern in selectivity, and wage decompositions based on selectivity corrected wage regressions, call into question the property right explanation yet are consistent with an asymmetric information explanation.

The early retirement plans of women and men: an empirical application

This paper deals with the factors that influence plans to retire from the labour force. We use a theoretical model to explain the empirical findings from a bivariate probit model relating economic, demographic, and social characteristics to retirement plans for over 7000 women and men between the ages of 40 and 64. The results of the analysis concerning retirement intentions suggest that personal, economic and household characteristics are more important determinants of retirement plans for women than men.

WAGE GAINS FROM BETTER HEALTH AND EMPLOYMENT-BASED HEALTH INSURANCE

The ultimate goal of this paper is to determine the differential effects of health insurance and health status on earnings. We believe that employment-based health insurance serves two purposes. First, health insurance provides protection against catastrophic financial losses associated with illness. Second, health insurance encourages consumption of health care services, which may ultimately improve a person’s health and productivity. To determine how health insurance and health status affect earnings, we estimate an empirical model that specifically examines the relationship between health insurance, health status, and earnings. We find the following. Earnings positively affect the likelihood of having health insurance. Having health insurance improved health status for women, but not for men. Higher earnings resulted in lower health status for women, but had no effect on the health status of men, and better health status and having health insurance increased earnings for both women and men. Our analysis implies that there are some returns to employment-based health insurance that go beyond the basic purpose of insurance.

Pareto Optimality in a Becker Model of Time Allocation

This paper addresses the question of the consistency of utility maximization in Beckers time allocation model with Pareto optimality. We find that when the general conditions of Pareto optimality are investigated, as opposed to the parochial specification of equal marginal rates of substitution across all individuals, Beckers model does, in fact, support a Pareto optimal allocation.